Lots of updates

I've been super busy lately so here are some updates!


September 19th was my last day at Centocor. I had two days off of some shopping and relaxing and some minor construction. I decided to put a cat door into the basement door for Charley. I'd always wanted to keep the door closed but Charley's litter is down there. I got a door and did all the cutting and installation myself! One problem though - Charley hated it! I stuck him down there to learn how it worked, thinking he'd come right through. He didn't. He hated pushing the thing with his face. Now this is a cat that digs, burrows and plows his nose into my sides if I'm not in a good position for him to lay against me and will climb into anything! For the last week we've now had the door ghetto taped open so he can at least get used to going in and out of the opening for a while. I'll wean him into the door opening later down the road. Here are a few funny snapshots!

^A shot of the ghetto tape job and wild eyes Charley thinking about coming through

^Again, thinking about coming through to the basement side...

^Gingerly coming back up from the basement...

^Here's one just for fun. He loves sitting in empty water cases. I think he thinks we can't see him!

I started my new job at Shire pharmaceuticals on Monday, September 24th! My first day started off by arriving 5 minutes late, forgetting proper identification and not having my paperwork completed but after all that got worked out everything went great! I picked a good time to leave...they did the lay-offs at Centocor on September 25th as expected. A bunch of my friends were let go and it was a very sad day in Malvern. I wish them all the best.

I've really enjoyed Shire so far and have already learned a lot. Friday I got to go to the Owings Mills, Maryland facility with my manager and see some capsule and tablet manufacturing going on! It was very different than biologic manufacturing, that's for sure!



GO PHILLIES! We went to the last Friday regular season game last night! It was such a fun game, the energy in the stadium was nuts and the fans were out of control! When the rally towels were spinning it looked so alive! There were cheers not only for the Phillies but as people watched the scoreboards from around the league and the Mets were losing! They won it 6-0 on Friday! Here are a few snapshots from the night.

^Last out of the night!

^Phillies WIN!!!

Our *Not quite Napa* day in Bucks County

Today was like the perfect storm, only in a good way. The weather was beautiful, I didn't have either of my 2 Sunday classes and there was no Eagles football keeping us close to home! We decided to go out to see a few of Bucks county's winerys and also practice with the camera.

We first went to Peace Valley Winery. They grow grapes ($0.75/pound) and apples ($0.65/pound) and allow you to pick them. We just took pictures (all the photos below). The tasting room was empty besides the older lady who was busy clagning bottles around in the closet and grumbling under her breath. We didn't hang around there long.

Next we used our Google directions backwards to get to Crossings Vineyard. We were lucky to find it after all the wrong turns and detours that the navigator (me) took the frustrated driver (Duane) through. This place was quite a step up from the first, alas no pictures. They had beautiful grounds in Washington crossing, PA and some great wine. The tasting room was filled with barrels and a very knowledgeable woman serving the 10 or so varieties we tasted! We bought 3 varieties.

Finally, we stopped at a place we saw on the way to Crossings, Buckingham Valley Vineyard. They allowed you pour your own tastes! We left with two bottles and a bill that cost less than one of the bottles of Crossings wine!

^Who knew Duane could juggle!?

Coincidentally, one of the photographer blogs I check out has a recent post from a wedding in Napa valley. I'm striving to be even half as good as this guy Becker but sadly think I have a long way to go...Check out his Napa valley blog post.



Thanks for looking!

PSU visit

We traveled with the Roth's to PSU this weekend. We (and a bunch of others) took off Friday to head up and enjoy a day of college drinking before the big ND game. We were at Cafe 210 by about 2 pm, having drinks and eats. Below are a few pics from Friday before things got too crazy!

We played check roulette - the person who guesses closest to the actual check amount doesn't have to pay. We had 9 people drinking and eating lunch.
^Here's everyone with their guesses for the check total...
^And here's the check! 31 beers and lunch for 9 for less than $200! College prices can't be beat!
^Me and Shannon


Saturday's tailgating began by 10 AM, however we didn't make it there until around noon. Tailgating was crazy, there were so many people out (and in white!). Duane ended up getting one ticket from a friend of Joe Mazza's. Below are the pics from tailgating and the game.
^The tailgate next to us was out of control.
^One of the seas of Tailgaters.
^Everyone starting to go in for the game

^It really was a "White Out"
^PSU wins 31 to 10 over Notre Dame!

Great Adventure trip

We went to Great Adventure yesterday with the free passes we won at Fred's Cancer benefit. I couldn't believe what they charged us for besides park admission (parking $15 and lockers $2 which were required for the newest ride they have) but we had a great time and got on all the rides we wanted - 8 total! Our second ride was Nitro and Duane managed to loose his cell phone on it! It was on one of the camel humps that we saw it suspended in mid-air and a bunch of people yelled "Cellphone!" I didn't think it was ours, but sure enough, his was gone by the end of the ride! We ended up reactivating his old phone so he stuck with that until our plan runs out next year!

The longest we waited was about 80 minutes for Superman. It was totally worth it though, the experience of riding a coaster on your belly was completely different!

The most exciting ride was Kinda Ka! It is currently the tallest coaster in the world! This thing goes from 0 to 128 mph in something like 3 seconds then shoots you up almost 500 feet to come straight down! It was indescribable! You can see it in the distance of the photo below - its the blue and green one with one high hump.


Heres a video from someone that rode Kingda Ka and was crazy enough to hold a video camera!